


Glasses

by Nathalie_Hawthorne_Hafner



Category: High Rollers DnD (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Opposites Attract, Panic Attacks, Past Character Death, Romantic Fluff, Space cowboy falls for nerd, the quilucius stuff is in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24504580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nathalie_Hawthorne_Hafner/pseuds/Nathalie_Hawthorne_Hafner
Summary: Nova and Thalia grieve for their lost friend, together.
Relationships: Nova V'Ger/Thalia Wispwind, Qillek "Quill" Ad Khollar/Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Glasses

Thalia Whisperwind sat, motionless, noiseless, in the pilot’s seat of her ship, the Twin Star Longbow. She stared at the little pair of glasses that sat among her collection of useless trinkets on her console. 

Usually there would be somebody talking. Usually, Bym would be rattling Thalia’s ear off about some potential upgrades he read about in some engineering magazine. Telling her about something weird the engine did the day before that kept him up all Astral night as he problem solved it. Reminding her about how low they were running on spare parts.

But now the cockpit was silent, except for the distant hum of the engines. Not even Big Cat dared make a sound as he lay, licking his wounds, curled up around her seat.

Meanwhile, Nova V’ger sat, motionless, noiseless, in the engine room of the Twin Star Longbow.

She stared at the arcane machinery that was now her sole responsibility to keep running. She had a pile of notebooks in her lap, all scrawled in a pidgin mix of Infernal and Common that she could only barely decipher. She had been so excited to learn how to maintain an astral engine, and now she could barely summon the energy to read. She had found a kindred spirit, another arcane technologist who she could work with and speak with on equal footing. That had only lasted, what, a day, maybe two. Keeping track of time was getting hard now that the brainfog that accompanied Nova’s most depressive episodes had set in. 

Since Nova had stepped aboard the ship, the engine room had been alight with discussion and excitement as Bym had started walking her through each system and subsystem and how they connected and synergised and interfered with one another, the whole time promising so often to eventually explain every system that interacted with everything. Occasionally Nova managed to surprise Bym by offering an insight from her time maintaining the Storm Chaser’s engines, teaching him something even as he taught her so much. The sound of the engines had mixed with their lively back and forth, filling the air with frenetic energy and inspiring Nova to learn more and more. 

But now the hum of the engines felt oppressive, intruding. Goading her to come solve a mystery that she was in no way capable to handle yet.

Everybody else on the ship, occupying some space between Thalia and Nova simply by virtue of those two occupying the extreme ends of the ship, could feel the shroud of grief that stretched between them. 

Kyrie sat in her turret, her face buried in some manga in the hope it would provide an escape from thinking about death. Aila sat in the other turret, gazing out at the wall of the Styx, wondering why this life felt so natural to her. Lucius and Qillek talked quietly about home, sitting across from each other at the table in the lounge, both in the back of their minds wondering what they could have done to change things. Sentry, being no stranger to losing allies in battle, focused on providing her friends some comfort food.

A small light indicating some alarm went off on Thalia’s dashboard. Something with the engine, no doubt some damage from the fight that had only just finally caught up to it. She instinctively turned to Bym’s little booster seat and opened her mouth to tell him to get his ass to the engine room, before reality slapped her in the face. Thalia intercommed the engine room. “Nerva, dear, do you have this under control?” Her call was met with silence. “Nerv- Nova?” She turned to look through the ship to see if she could spot where Nova was from the cockpit. “Nova? Where is that girl...” Thalia double checked that she had engaged the autopilot and marched through the ship to find Nova. Her long legs carried her swiftly through the lounge, and the gangway, and as she entered the engine room, she found Nova sitting against the wall, her head in her hands, crying and hyperventilating.

Thalia wasn’t very good with people. She was a criminal, with a curse that drove people away and an alcohol addiction. People didn’t like her, and she didn’t like them back. Kyrie had been able to see past that for long enough to see the potential for making money working with her. 

But Bym, Bym was an imp. A little devil, though a mild one, but one nonetheless. Life of crime? “Love it.” Curses? “I know tons of perfectly nice people with curses.” Alcoholism? “What’s a little vice between friends, eh?” 

Bym was... Well, if Thalia ever had a friend, it was Bym.

All of this was a long-winded way of saying that Thalia had absolutely no idea how to deal with somebody having a panic attack. Bym never had any, and Kyrie’s method of calming herself down was to run to her turret and listen to some Shansara.

Qill barged past Thalia, or at least as much as a 90-pound ball of feathers could. Sentry following closely after managed it much better. 

“Excuse us, captain,” the hulking bio-magitechnical golem politely said as she pushed Thalia out of her way. 

“What’s up?” Qill asked softly, kneeling in front of Nova. “Can you tell me what’s got you stressed out?”

“H- h- he was supposed to be here teaching me... I don’t know what I’m doing I don’t know how to fix this I’m not smart enough..."

"Nova, you are literally, _literally,_ the smartest person I know."

"I screw up so much, though..."

"Who was it that got us all off of Aegis V alive?"

"By making a deal with the ILS. Who I took home and then detonated like a bomb on the Storm Chaser."

"I'm pretty sure it was Aila who did that last bit, but..." Qill checked over his shoulder to make sure Aila hadn't heard him pinning the blame for that on her. "Okay, who was it that fixed the Maiden's forge and revived Sentry?" Qill assumed that was what happened. He was somewhere else at the time.

"After getting her killed because I was too weak to protect myself."

"Oh, for H'esper's sake..." Qill muttered.

“Nova,” Sentry said, kneeling next to Qill, “You are such an important part of this team. We wouldn’t have gotten half as far without you, and we won’t get halfway to the end if you give up now.”

Lucius entered the engine room and joined the other three. “Nova, you get so much excitement from working with this stuff, and your enjoyment of learning about magic is infectious and makes me and Qill excited about magic too.”

Unknown to Thalia, Tiangong joined in, as best they could, sending thoughts of safety and comfort through their bond. 

"Really?" Nova responded, starting to calm down. "It does?"

"It does," Qill confirmed.

Thalia watched the scene in front of her. _They really love that girl, don't they,_ she thought to herself. 

Once Nova had calmed to the point of taking in the rest of her surroundings, she saw Thalia standing in the doorway, seperate from the crowd gathered to triage her episode. "Sorry, captain."

"No, no, it's quite alright..." Thalia responded. "I... I miss him too." She pondered a brief moment. "It's funny, he and Kyrie only ever interacted when the turret malfunctioned, and you'd only been here a day, so I thought I was sitting up there mourning him all on my own." Thalia pushed her way through the throng of Nova's friends, and sat down next to her. "I'd quite enjoy talking with you, about him, if you would like." 

Nova's friends went back to their previous activities. As Thalia started telling Nova the sordid story of how she and Bym had first met, Big Cat came and laid down at their feet. Thalia quickly lost track of the time, telling Nova story after story of Bym’s escapades, and Nova telling Thalia of her own misadventures as a member of the ragtag group officially unofficially known as the Storm Chasers. Thalia even caught herself smiling a few times. 

She realized she had a feeling of warmth in her chest, sitting here with the girl she had so brazenly flirted with multiple times. Thalia realized she still had at least one friend. But as she listened to Nova’s voice regale her with tales of titans and demigods and flying cities, as even her hair snakes began to become enraptured by Nova’s surprising charisma, Thalia pondered the warmth in her chest. She wondered, if, maybe, they could be closer than just friends. Maybe. 

All the while, Bym’s glasses sat on Thalia’s console, keeping vigilant watch over the ship, and watching the two people he had been closest with become closer together.


End file.
